Reasons and advantages for choosing an electric fire for your home.

When choosing a fireplace, one may opt for the safest one whether it is for home or office heating. The reasons that may make the electric fires the safest option to choose are that their flames are not real. Furthermore, there are no exposed hot surfaces to cause accidental burns as well as any harmful mold growth in pipes or ducts. Most importantly, materials are usually fire-retardant.

The other highlighting points that make the electric fires much more appealing to opt for are their energy efficiency and convenience.

More Energy Efficient

Electric fires are more energy efficient, than any other firesides. Plus, you find electric fires to fit just about any budget; you do not have to go for expensive home modifications with a full built-in wood fireplace with chimney etc. On the other hand, electric fires are almost 100% efficient and reliable and they may also ignite quickly. Once you collect measurements of the room and area of installment as well as the outlet voltage, you can purchase the appropriate size, style and wattage that will provide ultimate warmth, in affordable price. Unlike gas or wood-heated fireplaces, you can easily replace the parts of electric fireplaces.

Convenience

They come in different sizes, materials, styles, colours and wattage plus they take up little space and they may be the most portable ones which can be stowed away when on in use as during the summer. Furthermore, you are relieved from collecting and storing logs/woods and there are no vents, ducts or flue blockage to worry about. Most of them are so simple and easy to install that you can even do it yourself and there is no messy ash and shoot to clean up, dust can be removed with a simple, damp, soft cloth or vacuum cleaner. Furthermore, with the touch of a button they can be turned on or off, so you do not have to work to ignite a fire or wait around for it to go out completely.

Keeping in mind all these extreme pros of electric fires, Stanningley provides you some very good quality electric fires, that are made 100% efficient, convenience and affordable too.

For individuals who may love to go for some mix theme of traditional plus modern may choose the electric fire like Celsi Electriflame Traditional Modern Electric Fire.

Celsi Electriflame 16” Traditional Modern Electric Fire

Celsi Electriflame may cherish you with the joy of relaxing and enjoying the smoky, soothing flames and be amazed by the depth of the fuel effect of the Electriflame Modern. On the other hand, the Celsi Electriflame Modern hearth mounted electric fire uses advanced 3D technology to create one of the most realistic flame pictures found in any electric fire today. Individuals who would like to go for model look may opt for the Be Modern Stanton Electric Suite.

Be Modern Stanton Electric Suite

The Be Modern Stanton Electric Suite is available in 2 finishes: Natural Oak finish with Almond Stone effect back panel & hearth and Almond Stone effect with matching back panel & hearth. It also features an Electric LED fire with mirrored trim.

Stanningley Firesides are one of the leading suppliers of Fireplaces within the Barnsley area that provide you the best quality fireplaces in Barnsley with a large choice of fires to choose from. Stanningley Firesides helps you to choose the fireplace of your dreams plus they offer you free delivery to your home.

Can solid wood furniture be comparable to compressed wood variations?

A question of quality verses convenience and practicality. Weighing up the benefits and value of quality wood furniture over lesser priced alternatives.

When it comes to decisions that affect your lifestyle and home the replacement or acquisition of furniture could have a major impact on your finances. We have two choices as to what material we could have our furniture made from; solid wood and compressed wood fibre. Solid wood furniture would be the more expensive, premium choice in this situation as fibreboard is a recycled wood alternative, where the wood is compressed and glued together to form a firm, workable material. This wood board does not however look like wood so a thin veneer wood texture is attached to the surfaces.

So what are the benefits of using compressed wood boards? Mainly that it typically costs less than solid wood and that is can be easily recycled. It is also a lighter material and therefore can be moved to different locations easier. Some designs can even be disassembled and then reassembled when moved to a new location in the house or another home.

If the choice is simple that of cost then it is possible to still enjoy real wood furniture without the high price tag. Furniture can be made from woods that are generally inexpensive, sustainable and fast growing like Pine and Tulip. There is also the issue of branding. Some furniture manufacturers do charge a premium regardless of what the items are made from. If you can find independent manufacturers then you will probably make a saving and may even receive a higher quality, better made product. Many independent manufacturers do offer a bespoke service if you are wanting furniture for kitchens and bedrooms.

Fibreboard is known to bend under sustained load; like for instance, if you have had a TV resting on a table for any length of time, you will notice that the table will have bowed under the weight. It is for this reason you may choose not to use fibreboard if the furniture has to be load bearing.

Solid wood furniture is easier to maintain and is generally a more resilient material. You might of experienced that when you move to a new home or move the furniture to a new room your chest of drawers or your wardrobe came apart at the joints because the fibreboard couldn't withstand the force of moving the overall weight of the item.

If the furniture is regularly used, such as a dinning table it will acquire dints and scratches or the finish might be rubbed off. These imperfections can be repaired with ease and little if any expense but when you damage compressed fibreboard it would be better just to replace the item. Solid wood can sometimes look better after it has seen some use developing a patina or lived in look.

Both types of furniture material have their uses under different usage situations but solid wood will always be the better choice. You may think that it is expensive but bespoke made furniture can be comparable to branded self assembled fibreboard, you will get the beauty, quality and durability of solid wood for less than you think.

Aspect Pine are manufacturers of bespoke, hand crafted solid wood furniture for use throughout the home. For more information about solid wood furniture please visit http://www.aspectpine.co.uk/

When we cooked on open fires.

When I was a young boy my grandparents lived in a remote cottage in Wales. It was a wonderful cottage with a huge garden where they grew all their own fruit and vegetables. They even kept chickens and a pig. 

The main room was the parlour, and it contained a huge fire range with a massive chimney from which hung chains on which they would suspend a big black kettle over the ever burning open fire. The fire also heated an oven to one side and a boiler to the other. All their cooking was done on the range over the open fire. As a small boy I remember toasting the most delicious toast in the world on a toasting fork held close to the flames.

In the days before the television took its place, the kitchen hearth was the centre of family life. As well as being the place where food was cooked, it was also the main gathering point, the focus of all that went on in the family; in fact focus is the Latin word for fireplace.

Although things are very different today, there is nothing quite like relaxing with family and friends in front of a log burning stove. It is a very different kind of warmth from the warmth you get from central heating. It is focussed warmth, and something to focus on visually, and it creates a very special feeling of being relaxed and content. That welcoming warm glow from those slowly burning logs penetrates through to the very soul. 

A recent symposium in Leeds was about open stove cooking. It was called ‘Open Hearth Cookery’ and covered such things as the Roman technique of cooking over ashes and recreating ancient English dishes cooked over a ‘chafing dish’ which is a sort of portable grate; something like a cross between an old fashioned grate and a modern charcoal barbeque. 

Cooking over an open hearth is a craft that in many ways has influenced cuisine throughout Europe and most of the recipes that we use today were first created for cooking over an open hearth. Only recently have they been adapted for cooking in a modern kitchen. Modern cooking is far easier that it was back in those days, but there is little doubt that the flavours are not so good.

The Leeds Stove open hearth cooking symposium included advice on how to control the heat, which requires a knowledge of how the fire operates along with a knowledge of how different kinds of wood burn. Not all woods are good for cooking; generally hardwoods are best. Oak, ash, and hard maple are good, though any woods that generates an even intense heat and many red hot cinders and coals will do. Blazing fires may look good, but they are not very useful for cooking.

Perhaps it is certain nostalgia for the taste of cooking on an open stove that feeds our passion for barbeques. Cooking over hot charcoal is certainly the next best thing to cooking over an open hearth. According to a famous online encyclopaedia, barbecue originated in America in the 1800s when cowboys on Western cattle drives used them to slow cook tough cuts of meat such as brisket. (If you have never eaten brisket that has been slowly barbecued for 24 hours, then try it; it is tender and perfectly delicious.) Unfortunately, today charcoal barbecues are being replaced by gas barbeques, which are not the same at all. 

One technique that we learned at the Leeds stove cooking symposium was to cook on the hot surface of a wood burning stove using a Dutch oven, which is a cast iron cooking pot with a tight fitting lid. You can monitor the temperature using a stove chimney magnetic thermometer. We intent to try to slow cook a joint of brisket this way; we’ll let you know how we get on. 

The Leeds Stove Centre has many different multi fuel stoves to choose from. Visit http://www.leedsstovecentre.co.uk/

Selecting the best wood for your wood burning stove.

When it comes to choosing the best wood for your wood burning stove, not all woods are the same. Here we will look at the different kinds of wood that you can use and we will offer some advice making the best choices.

Moisture content
Moisture content is very important. ‘Green’ logs with a high moisture content will be difficult to light and they will produce much less heat as much of the heat that they generate when they burn will be taken up by evaporating the water that they contain when then goes up the chimney as steam.
They also produce much more tar and smoke because they burn at a lower temperature. This tar and smoke will blacken the glass of your door and it will also deposit gunk on the inner lining of your chimney which means that you will need to carry out more maintenance.

Seasoning and drying
Freshly sawn logs can have up to 60% moisture contents so in order to reduce the moisture content of your logs, it is necessary to either season them or kiln dry them. Seasoning typically takes two years and reduced the moisture content to 20% to 30% and kiln dried logs have a moisture content typically of 15% to 20%.
You can either season the logs yourself by keeping them in a place sheltered from the rain and that allows air to circulate freely. Alternatively you can buy pre-seasoned logs or kiln dried logs. Kiln dried are the most expensive; seasoned are cheaper and unseasoned are the cheapest.
You can get some idea of how dry your wood is from its weight.

Hardwood or softwood
Generally hardwood is the best choice but it does need to be properly dried or seasoned. Here is a table that shows how well different kinds of woods burn.

 For more information on wood burning stoves please visit http://www.leedsstovecentre.co.uk

Type	Details	Quality
Ash	Excellent wood; hot and slow burning. Best when dry.	Very good
Beech	Excellent wood; hot and slow burning. Best when dry.	Very good
Hawthorn	Slow burn with good heat output.	Very good
Thorn	Top wood for burning with steady flame - high heat output with minimum smoke.	Very good
Yew	Top wood for burning with steady flame - high heat output with minimum smoke.	Very good
Apple	Excellent wood that when dry bums slowly and steadily	Good
Birch	Hot burning but burns quickly in small quantities - can be burnt unseasoned.	Good
Cedar	Good burning wood with long heat output. Can crackle and spit.	Good
Cherry	Slow burner with good heat output. Must be dry.	Good
Hazel	Is a good but fast burning wood and produces best results when allowed to season.	Good
Hornbeam	Good burner but needs to be dry.	Good
Lilac	Good kindling wood and good burner.	Good
Maple	Good flame and heat.	Good
Oak	Good slow burning wood when dry.	Good
Pear	Good slow burning wood when dry.	Good
Plum	Good burner with high heat output.	Good
Horse Chestnut	Good burner in stoves but tends to spits - don't use in open fire.	Good
Pine	Good flame but can produce smoke and tar.	Good
Elm	Reasonable burner but must be dry.	Medium
Larch	Reasonable burner but must be dry. Can cause deposits.	Medium
Laurel	Good flame, medium heat output. Must be dry.	Medium
Sycamore	Good flame, medium heat output. Must be dry.	Medium
Sweet Chestnut	Medium output when dry but spits. Don't use in open fires.	Medium
Alder	Poor heat output and fast burn.	Poor
Chestnut	Poor burn, low heat	Poor
Firs	Poor burning wood with low heat output and causes deposits	Poor
Holly	Fast burning with good flame but poor heat output.	Poor
Spruce	Poor heat output and fast burn.	Poor
Willow	Difficult to burn	Poor
Laburnum	Very smoky wood - avoid,	Poor - avoid
Poplar	Very smoky wood - avoid.	Poor - avoid

It's a brave new connected world for home audio and visual media.

How the internet and wireless connected systems are changing audio and visual media within our homes. Is fully digital, non tangible video and audio becoming the norm?

 

If you have found yourself wanting to get a new audio or TV system, you will have probably noticed just how much choice you have and how many more possibilities there are to bring sound to your home. Many of use still have a large collection of CD's, DVD's or even older media such as tapes and vinyl but these days you don't even need to touch hard-copy media.

Everything these days can be connected in some form or another but the most popular way is using internet wireless routers. Most of us are already using them with our computers, tablets and smartphones but did you know you can do it with some audio systems? Network connected audio devices are now available where you can download, store and stream your favourite music to other rooms in your household. You can use the hard-drive in your computer or a network attached storage (NAS) to convert your CD's to high quality FLAC (free lossless audio codec) and even use downloaded 24-bit studio quality music files.

It's not just your network connected audio that you can receive and play your music collection. If you have portable media devices such as a tablet computer or a smart-phone you can access your collection anywhere with a network with access to the internet. With such innovations in place music lovers are freed from just confining their enjoyment to just one room and could have smaller satellite systems in places such as the bedroom and kitchen. For those that are on the move can access their collection on the commute to work and even on holiday in other countries.

Home visual media is also benefiting from the new connected nature of multiple systems. TV's can now be routinely found to be able to connect to home networks and the internet which is turning them into media hubs, where you can download or stream music and movies online. The proliferation of high-definition movies and program content is giving the perfect excuse to take your TV experience and turn it into a home cinema showcase. Virtually all modern movies come with multi channel soundtracks and most audio and video devices support additional speaker configurations. For those that have not experienced the difference that a home cinema system can have when viewing high-definition content, will be surprised to the difference it makes to the enjoyment of your favourite movies.

Moving on there would be an increasing shift towards a fully digital, non hard copy attitude to the media available to us. We would no longer need tangible media such as disks as we would have all our acquired media be them music, movies, video, written and photography would all be stored in storage that we personally may or may not own in our homes. For media we have not made ourselves there would be access rights that we have bought, so even if we somehow loose our media libraries, we could still reacquire what we had stored in them. There may be discussions as to if we would still prefer to own tangible media but I would think they would just gather dust somewhere like my current CD collection does.

Audio Projects is a Leeds based supplier of premium audio equipment. For more information about audio solutions and network audio systems please visit http://www.audio-projects.co.uk.

Why is it so difficult to buy a gift for Mother’s Day – Especially for men!

Why do men seem to forget when to send gifts and best wishes for Mother's Day? Let us explain how the date Mother's Day changes and how men's attitudes to buying gifts can create this problem. It all starts with the way Mother’s Day is calculated in the UK which is 3 weeks before Easter; Easter in the UK is determined, would you believe, by the 1st Sunday after the full moon on or after the Vernal Equinox. Phew, it sounds all really complicated but has the effect that Mother’s Day in the UK is on different dates year on year.

This makes it difficult to remember exactly when it is; you probably have a vague idea it is sometime in March but without a consistent date many people think they have lots of time but can be suddenly confronted with buying a gift far sooner than they had imagined. This in turn adds to the stress of choosing a suitable gift and because it is for your Mother or your Wife or from your kiddies on Mother’s Day you really want to get something appropriate and something that is going to be appreciated. In the US however, the situation is somewhat clearer as it is always the 2nd Sunday in May. Now I'm not making excuses for men here, but sometimes we do panic which is not conducive with choosing that elusive perfect gift. Men mostly do try, speaking as a man I can attest, however, herds of men can be found wandering from shop to shop in search of this and probably with not much of a clue but with the knowledge that it is important to get it right.

When it comes to choosing gifts, men generally find great difficulty, however, if we are married with kids this makes this process even more difficult as we have to buy a gift for the mother of our children, then, we have to buy a gift on behalf of the kids. Do we buy one gift from all the kids or gifts from each individual child; this also goes for Mother’s Day cards. We always set out with good intentions and desperately want to find gifts that express the sentiment of the occasion, not easy for the male of the species and we probably know the consequences of not getting this right, despite our best endeavours. The memory of past mistakes with that disappointing look haunts us, which just adds to the pressure. This goes some-way to explain why men, at best, find it really, really difficult and at worst, holds a special hell reserved just for us.

When children move into adulthood or late teens the responsibility then usually passes to the individual child for the procurement of the expected Mother’s Day gift. The female of the species usually not only finds out when it is, but has a gift & card organised. Sometimes they will inform any males in the household of the impending occasion and then when the time becomes near, will remind them that is only a week away and to get out there and get that gift and card. The males of the family then panic, usually because we have thought about it and are still unsure what to do. Do we go down the chocolates and flowers route or something else? It is my experience that the girls have already covered this and because the boys are not on the ball have to find possible alternatives. It now comes full circle because most mothers would probably like a gift that reflects just a little thought. However it is my contention that men and, I'm a man with extensive experience, over think and get it wrong because we feel we have to get a perfect gift reflecting everything we feel our mother or wife would like, without some simple steps to establish this.

These steps are to find out what she might need if anything and a little research would yield dividends and not just at Mother’s Day. We only get into hot water when it is clear that she never would want such gifts and that the answer lies in her normal tastes and needs. The needs section of this issue is very simple, is it practical, is it what she would herself choose? The simple truth is that all the information is already available; all we have to do is listen, observe and use this when we think of buying a mother’s day gift, and of course, remember to buy a nice card!

Just to let everyone know this year Mother’s Day in the UK is on Sunday 30th March 2014, and in the US is on Sunday 11th May 2014, so you have been told in plenty of time so good luck and I hope you find that special gift without the stress!

 Peekaboogifts is an online general gift store where you can buy gifts for friends and family. For more information and to browse their collection please visit www.peekaboogifts.co.uk

Do men really find it harder to choose gifts for people?

When it comes to buying gifts for loved ones why do men tend to miss the mark? A brief explanation of men's habits and attitudes when it comes to acquiring gifts.

A frequently occurring thought that occurs to men when they are faced with buying a gift for a loved one is what to buy them. A lot of the indecision comes from more of what to buy the recipient that they will actually like and appreciate. When men buy things for themselves they base the decision on whether the item is useful or will help them with some part of their lifestyle or interests. Getting gifts for others especially if they aren't that close in your life can pose a challenge when using this method as you won't know what the person wants or needs at any particular time.

When it comes to buying gifts for women men can also fall short. Women like gifts with a sense of sentimentality or romance – both things men aren't naturally accustomed to in their average daily thoughts. This can also bring a feeling of stress and inadequacy for man especially when they have gone to some time and trouble to find a gift only to have it rejected or misinterpreted. So given the pressure to do the right thing and not make a mistake can take a lot of the fun out of finding gifts and make the whole experience an undesirable one.

Men are more likely to leave finding gifts for special occasions and Christmas to the last minute. This would seem understandable given many men's aversion for shopping in general. Usually when a man goes to shop for something they will have a good idea as to what they what and where to get it before they leave the house. When it comes to Christmas shopping however they will find themselves going from store to store trying to find something that the recipient of the gifts will appreciate. This does generate frustration and can leave men feeling drained – not looking forward to when they next have to try again for more gifts.

So to answer the question, yes men do struggle to find gifts in general and it's not because they can't or don't want to but more because it doesn't suit the average man's mindset or sense of masculinity and even if it is a good use of their time. Like for instance if a man would like to get their loved one a new fragrance it would be a question of do they like the fragrance even though it is intended for a woman. If the answer is yes then it is very likely the woman will also like it and appreciate the thought and effort of getting it. So in that way it was a good use of their time and not diminished their sense of masculinity.

So it does come back to the thought of will the other person even like the gift but that shouldn't be the main focus on why we are to go through the time, trouble and expense of acquiring the gifts. The most popular mindset is that the recipient will appreciate the gift no matter what it is and can be rest assured. Is it the thought that counts? - Yes, so there is nothing wrong if you are concerned with whether it's the wrong gift or not.

Peekaboogifts is an online general gift store where you can buy gifts for any occasion. For more information and to browse their collection please visit www.peekaboogifts.co.uk

Audio compression becoming a thing of the past with modern Hi-Fi systems.

With the vast improvements in internet bandwidth and media storage is audio compression needed? The start of an era of HD audio for everyone.

Music is the soundtrack to your life so why settle for second best? We have systems that will take your existing music collection and play them back in glorious studio quality. The best that many of use have been CD's that we rip into MP3's that we then store on our systems and media devises. But this is taking a relatively old and far from perfect medium and reducing it's quality even more. Many of us may not know that many of our digital music systems can play back 24 bit studio quality music but are stuck with compressed MP3/AAC downloads. Much of this is because vendors such as Apples Itunes where created at a time when internet bandwidth and music media devises had low storage capacities. This is not the case any-more as megabit connections are common and Terrabyte network attached storage is fast becoming the norm. So you could ask yourself if you could get high definition music would you get it, we already have HD and even 3D video?

The idea that easily available HD audio would come as a welcome thought to the average audiophile, as this set of enthusiasts would be the main customers. But what is it to the rest of us? Are we really that fussy as to the quality of our music?
We have become so used to hearing compressed music as MP3's together with the ease and convenience that we can get them the average person wouldn't adopt new formats until they are more widespread.

Unfortunately getting studio quality copies of your favourite music is not that easy at the moment but there is a shift in the music industry to make high quality music tracks available for download. Spotify is rumoured to be looking to increase it's music uploads to CD quality and some of the leading music labels such as Linn and Pono, are trying to make high quality music uploads an everyday thing. Regardless of how the industry moves one thing for sure is that our ears will like it. Audio systems have been getting more sophisticated over the last few years where you can now access your music from anywhere in your home. Store your music digitally in one location and stream it in high quality to other network enabled systems. With network attached audio you can free your favourite music to be available throughout your household and on devices such as your smart-phones and tablets by wireless LAN and over the internet.

For more information on premium Hi-Fi products visit http://www.audio-projects.co.uk we also supply network audio solutions.

Get a lot of bass for your buck with premium modern Hi-Fi systems.

Music is the soundtrack to your life so why settle for second best? We have systems that will take your existing music collection and play them back in glorious studio quality. Even any low quality MP3's will sound more inspiring using studio quality ripping software. With our network attached audio you can free your favourite music to be available throughout your household and on devices such as your smart-phones and tablets. Our high quality audio products will take pride of place in any music lovers home with top brands known to any audio enthusiast. For more information on premium Hi-Fi products visit http://www.audio-projects.co.uk we also supply network audio solutions.

Simple steps to the future of mining and a permanent solution to the problem of dwindling resources.

The problems faced by us all with resource scarcity and the possible solutions on the horizon. Even though they might seem unrealistic they can still be envisioned by the average person with a reasonable science understanding. Would it surprise you that the needle indicating the amount of certain resources essential to our technological way of life are running near empty? If the current level of demand for non-renewable resources such as copper, Indium and even Silver will be depleted in under 30 years! This might not seem to bad for many of us but it will cause many headaches for our children. So if we can't get these resources from existing mines any-more where can we get them? One solution that is being given thought to these days is to acquire rare elements from near earth passing asteroids. Ok this might sound like something from the pages of a science fiction novel but there are many people saying this devoid of a smile on their face. There are quite a few companies making plans to undertake this monumental challenge and they do have the expertise and money to attempt it. So why should we even attempt it? - Asteroids are made from the same materials the earth was when it was just forming and contain rich amounts of Iron, Nickel and water ice which can used to make rocket fuel amongst other things. The real money spinner is the Platinum group metals that are rare and therefore expensive here on earth but occur in larger concentrations within many asteroids. Most of the PGMs that is mined in the world today came from asteroid impacts in the past – so you could say we have been mining them for some time. Mining asteroids – how difficult could it be? Even though its just mining not to much dissimilar to how we acquire raw resources on earth it has to be done millions of miles away in the vacuum of space and at the temperature of space. Some people say that lassoing an asteroid so that it could be processed in earth orbit is one option, another is to mine it in its own near earth orbit and bring the resources back to earth. There are concerns that these ideas bring up, such as if the asteroid where to collide with the Earth to what effect the extra mass in orbit might have on our orbit to the effect on precious metal prices. Concerns that are as unrealistic as asteroid mining is today. A more down to earth solution being looked into is deep sea mining. Surveyors have found considerable deposits of base and precious metals in areas with hydrothermal vents which is great news. This idea is no more easier or less expensive than missions to mine asteroids and it would cause destruction to some unique ecosystems found under no other conditions. I doubt such a concern will be taken into consideration and deep sea mining will go ahead anyway as the sea floor is more accessible than outer-space. To fund asteroid mining ventures will be different from how state run missions are funded as there are a number of private companies pushing to undertake this opportunity commercially. The are 3 such ventures that have been making news in the last year – Planetary Resources was the first to come out in April 2012 and has some very wealthy backers and plans to start the process by launching telescope scouts to find and categorise near Earth passing asteroids. The second is Deep Space Industries announced this year with many ex-NASA experts on board with plans to send robotic scouts to explore asteroids within the next 5 years. The last on is Stott Space which is aiming to engage the wider public and inspire more of an interest in space. Stott Space is trying to raise funds by the recent method of crowd funding using sites such as indiegogo and kickstarter where companies pitch their ideas and the public donate amounts towards the financial goal. The new Mars Initiative has started a prize fund for the first company to land a human on Mars using crowd funding. These seem to be some very interesting times and I fully support the idea of asteroid mining and even deep sea mining if it can be done without impacting ecosystems. We will still need to find additional resources if we are to continue to develop our technology and have plenty for future generations and in space these resources are infinite. Please visit www.fieldsofperception.co.uk, for Space News

Introducing a new space news portal for discussions and latest developments in technological innovation.

A new space, science and technology news portal has been released that encourages the expression of ideas and opinions about new and emerging technologies. Follow the discoveries that will see changes to our lives in the next few years. Fields Of Perception is a new digital news portal for the Space, Science and Technology industries. We keep you up to date with all the ground-breaking discoveries and advances in Space exploration, Nano-technology, Medical advances and Electronics innovation. Although we have a focus on Space sciences, Astronomy, Space development and other over-worldly themes, we cover more down to earth issues such as environment, renewable energy and medicine. We hand pick stories from relevant sources that we feel would best interest our readers and use as reference for their respective areas of interest. We are different from the average news portal as we are to encourage both regular people who have an interest in space, science or technology to talk about their ideas with those that have more professional industrial experience. We hope that the stories we publish will inspire people to think about the universe and dare to dream of bigger things. We have chosen to have our site manually produced and human edited to give a personal touch and quality with every page. This individual production also gives flexibility of content and a personal service not often found on the internet these days. We are not just a news portal, we are striving to build a community where people of like-minded interest can discuss opinions and ideas on topics that may seem far-fetched to the average person on the street. To this end we have a forum where users can start topics for discussion and add their own thoughts to existing topics. We already have the interest of groups of people with varied experience and expertise in the subjects featured on Fields Of Perception based in many different countries. Given the varied interests of these people you can be assured that the forums will make for some interesting reading and you may find yourself expanding your knowledge. The aim of Fields Of Perception is to create an information resource for those interested in following the subjects that we feature and you can supply the info. Submit your own news about your products or discoveries and see them published and discussed by our visitors. We have two kinds of submissions, the standard inclusion and the top story. Top stories are the premium selection for those who would like their stories noticed before others, standard are the usual selection but both methods give good results for readability and SEO friendliness. If you are a news agent you can select multiple submissions if you have more than one article to submit, you will find that you save money in the long run if you use our service in this way. Have your own ideas for what is possible or what you would like to see happen? Showcase your idea with us and see it published. The Showcase area is a user submitted content place where anyone can write in detail about an idea or something they are passionate about. Although we understand the need to tell people your ideas we also understand and respect your rites as an author and ask readers to consult you in all things related to your idea. Space, Colonisation, Exploration, Commercial Space, Planetary Science, Asteroid Mining, Graphene, Nanotechnology, Solar, Renewable Energy, Electronics, Computing, New Space Bio: Please visit www.fieldsofperception.co.uk, for Space News

The Leeds Klaxon, a new local to Leeds news and events magazine is being released

A new Leeds local news, events and community magazine is released that puts what's going on into the hands of households and businesses. The Leeds Klaxon is a new printed publication dedicated to informing the people of Leeds of what is new and relevant for the area. We feature local news that is interesting and informative, keeping it true to what the general population would find of concern. We also publish articles giving information of any events, new businesses, community interests and lifestyle choices. We publish our printed magazine bi-monthly to over 10,000 households and businesses in the area with a hand delivery distribution. The areas that we distribute to are mainly in east Leeds in Chaple Allerton, Moortown, Meanwood and Harehills but will expand this over time. The Leeds Klaxon is a magazine following from the Number One Directory which was a local business advertising directory and we hope to give our customers a high quality product in which to advertise their businesses and services. Together with the printed publication we produce a digital version that can be viewed online or saved for later viewing. Leeds Klaxon online is the digital portal for the publication and features much of the same content as the magazine and more. It gives you the opportunity to easily add any relevant articles or stories you may have to be published for the express attention of the Leeds public. A service that we provide for those that have internet interests in Leeds is a online business directory where business can display information about their products and services. We tie in the stories to our social networks so they can easily be shared with others and given a choice of where to learn about the information that interests you. Bio: The Leeds Klaxon is new digital and printed magazine from the makers of The Number One Directory. Based in Leeds, West Yorkshire we serve news, articles and local business advertising opportunities. Please visit www.leedsklaxon.co.uk, for the Leeds Magazine

Are link exchanges still an effective way of SEO? – A guild to link building.

Summary:- Clarifying how the practice of finding link partners is still a good means of gaining site popularity. How to do a link exchange campaign without falling into the counter-productive bad habits found around the internet. Anyone that owns an online business will know how difficult it can be to drive traffic and sales to their site but are they really using the core principles of the internet to achieve this? One way of gaining traffic is getting similar websites like your own to link to you. By having a link on another site pointing to your URL, describing a major keyword for your business acts like a vote towards the importance of your site within search engine ranking and positions. The internet from the very beginning was all about linking of information and resources and this is still true today with a greater emphasis being on quality and usefulness of content, but it is still a machine governed by algorithms and mechanical code. So it is still important to consider how the content you place on other sites is used and interpreted within these mechanics. Getting back links to your site is important for your SEO efforts as it puts content relevant to your business on other sites. This makes your site look more attractive and relevant within your industry and increases the amount of traffic your site receives both from searches and from the linked sites individually. Not all links can be beneficial to you however as you should try to have links from sites that have similar content and subject matter as your own. For example if you are an online florist you should look for other online florists to partner with your own, having a link from jewellery sellers won’t do you any good. This is because search engines place you within its results pages in relation to other florists that are your competitors all after the same customers a link from somewhere else will be seen as irrelevant. Here are some popular mistakes when implementing a link exchange campaign. Will having hundreds if not thousands of backlinks increase my PageRank? No – this is where quality verses quantity counts! The rank, quality of content and relevancy of content of the site linking to you makes all the difference. You may be tempted to just find a program that would submit your keywords to hundreds of blogs, directories, feeds and forums with one click but your efforts will be seen as spam and may even be banned from listings. Organic submission (that what looks like it has been done by a human being) will give you the best returns so it is best you research into the sites you are putting content on. Will having a link from a really popular site that has nothing to do with my own help? To some extent it will be the result will be diluted in comparison to a popular site in your own industry. There are three types of linking you will encounter, a one way link which is probably the best type but these kinds of links are hard to get and you may have to pay for them. A reciprocal link exchange, where the two sites link to one another is the most popular and in most cases is free to undertake. These are a good link to have as content is shared between the sites and is seen in the search engines as such. Another less desirable and yet popular link type is a three way link where your site will link to a site that links to a third site that links to you. These are extremely unreliable as you don’t always know the quality of the other site linking to you so you should try to stay away if you can. There are a few things to look out for when choosing link partnerships as not all sites are friendly and helpful for doing this. Look at how search engine friendly a site is and check if a site has a “nofollow” tag in its html meta head content, this means that links are found on a page but not associated with another page. Find out if the page where you are linking from is directly accessible from the home page of the site, a standalone page probably has no PageRank of its own and certainly doesn’t get importance propagated from the sites main page, therefore of no practical use to you for SEO. Try to develop a professional relationship with your link partners where it is in your mutual interest to link together otherwise you might find them removing your link after only a short span of time. Fail to do this and you will find yourself having to check your links regularly and we are sure you have more important things to do with your time. The best thing to remember is to take your time with your campaigns even though they seem to take forever, but what you will get out of them will set your site within a commanding position within your industry into the future. Please visit www.wallsdirectory.com, Web Directory

WALLS Web Directory partners with sister site.

After some time it has come to pass that the WALLS Web Directory has been partnered with the BrickPages Web Directory. This is a new and exciting time for both sites as they continue to grow and develope. It is also great news for the sites in the directories as the two sites will now share content from its users.

So this means that anyone that submits a url for inclusion in one site will also be included in the other for free.
Both directories are human edited and manually produced so there is no question to the quality and level of service it's publishers will receive.

Visit:
WALLS Web Directory and BrickPages Web Directory

Pixel pages – can you teach an old SEO dog new tricks?

Re-visiting an old idea of the once popular pixel page and discussing if the format can be used in today’s search engine optimisation environment.

The internet is full of new and innovative ways to market a website online and the phenomenon of the pixel page became something of a craze in the mid 2000s. We first started to see this marketing idea in 2005 when a British business student, Alex Tew created a web page where advertisers could buy blocks of space for $1 per pixel. He had managed to sell all 1 million pixels by the end of 2006 with the help of quite some media interest and the page can still be viewed to this day. As you can imagine this success sparked a wave of similar pages employing the same script and was an interesting way of marketing a site for a time.

The types of advertisers that used these pages where varied but the aim was to get an ad block on them, regardless of the size with a hyperlink back to your site. You might think why would an advert measuring just 10x10 pixels – the minimum size could be seen as useful but it was the fact you had a link on a highly ranked page with many visitors that made advertising sense.

So in this way although the idea itself was very simple it satisfied the needs of almost all websites and that are of needing visitors and an increase in search engine positions and rankings. Just a single named back link on a page such as this would give a new site a boost in it position needed to get the business off and rolling. Unfortunately this technique for SEO is not as effective these days with search mainly determined by content rather than keywords.

These kinds of websites are still found today although it is hard to see if any are successful enough to make money. It would be because they are essentially copying from an original idea and no longer seen as original – a trap you have to be careful not to land in with any business venture. The mechanics of this style of SEO resource is still quite interesting and providing quality back links is a useful service for a website, especially if it has just been published. So saying this it is fair to say there is still a market for this kind of online service. So how can these sites be brought up to date with current search engine trends? Well you can’t just have to many out-bound links from any page anymore or just have content consisting of just hyperlinks as your site will be branded a link farm and be severely penalised for it. So limit the links on a page to no more than 50! – This is good for publishers as they are not lost in a sea of links and keeps the page useful for SEO. For websites who it is there job to list links, such as web directories already (with the exception of a few badly managed ones!) use this rule. Relevant and interesting content, information that visitors want to read about other sites products and services is a must so you should give users the chance to talk about themselves, also many people have business social connections that should also included. A secondary info page in addition to a link would be the answer to this requirement.

So to sum up what I have said a pixel style online marketing site can still be a good idea, all that is needed to make one that advertisers will actually use is to make it as useful from a content point of view as possible. Also invent a new format as to satisfy the need to be original and not just seen as just another pixel page.

The WALLS Directory is a new and innovative approach to the web directory industry incorporating a creative use of visual marketing and bespoke search engine friendly information display. Comprising of an online directory in the familiar format together with 8 digital “walls” that can be graffited and where users posters can be placed. Manual production ensures complete human moderation and the quality you would expect from a modern web directory.

For more info please visit www.wallsdirectory.com, Web Directory

The WALLS Web Directory opens its doors to an international market by becoming multi-lingual.

WALLS Online Web directory releases a site update to include non English speaking visitors and to open up to foreign search engine users.

The WALLS online web directory has recently released a new language update to their unique and creative directory. We understand that a large amount of internet users are non English speaking and represent a significant portion of all online activity.
WALLS Directory has therefore released its information pages in French, German, Spanish, Japanese and Chinese. These languages are found to be encompassing a large amount of usage online other than English and see that it is important not to discourage users from these regions from using the WALLS Directory service.
“We would like to welcome any non English speaking customers too WALLS Directory and even though we are an English based site we will try to accommodate anyone who would like to use our directory”.
“With the addition of these 5 extra languages we hope to cater for the larger percentage of common spoken searches other than English and cater for expanding economies in the far-east. We also don’t think we should restrict our content to just English”. Says Stewart Leech, Manager of the WALLS Directory.

For more info please visit www.wallsdirectory.com, Internet Directory

Is the role of online web directories still important with search dominated by Google?

Lets delve into the reality of the effectiveness of information services found online and how they are used by internet users. Who uses these services, why and how they are important to the integrity of the internet as a whole.

For anyone that has owned a website for any amount of time will have found out just how hard it is to compete with older sites when releasing a new one. There has been a large increase in the number of websites online over the last 4 years and getting a significant amount of visitors and an increase in search pagerank is notably more difficult. Yet the means of increasing the popularity of your site remains much the same with SEO and SERP’s still important and a driving factor of any online marketing strategy. One popular means of gaining visitors and increasing pagerank is by having linkbacks from other sites relevant to your niche and with web directory submissions.

How information is found online is by either a search engine or directory. A search engine is the easiest way of finding info online as they list all possible instances for a given search phrase and are used by just about everyone. A web directory is a collection of websites – usually human edited and sorted into the main interest categories and you would use them by navigating to whatever area of interest you are looking into. These directories are mainly used by webmasters wishing to register their sites as a resource and will often do this on many directories. So from this distinction you can see the difference between the two and as to who uses them. Web directories help websites become more popular by providing links to other sites that are (but not in all cases) found by the search engines that then determine how high in natural searches a website should appear. Some directories are ranked higher than others and you should take this into consideration when using them – one directory with a Google pagerank of 5 can have as much weight as 10 pr 3’s!

Even though Google has made many changes to its algorithm other the years these mechanics still apply and are still useful to know if you want to compete with older, more established domains.
Now the saying “content is king” is still to be considered when having an online popularity campaign because you should always try to vary what you say online as repeat content is not a good idea and is counter-productive, you may be penalised for not changing your content. Also you should find that many directories now recommend that you write a description of around a 100 words for a suitable submission. Should you pay for directory inclusions? – I would say it is worth the typical $10-20 for a basic listing on many sites. You will see an increase in your search engine pages rank with everyone you do, some directories offer free listing with a reciprocal back link but these often take months to go through – if they are completed at all! So at least if you pay for something you expect a service.

The future of web directories is likely to be a solid one as they will always be an information resource. Many are already becoming more content rich and adopting social and bookmarking network links so that there users can connect to their existing online business networks. Maybe one day an online directory will emerge to become an authority and even a household name known by millions.

The WALLS web directory is a fresh look at the online directory genre with added creativity and uniqueness. We give our users the opportunity to display their sites using a digital wall format with digital graffiti and banner fly posting, as well as in a traditional website directory. With 8 separate WALLS to choose from you are bound to find a place to put your poster and be with similar quality websites. A design service is available on request and with the manual way that this site is managed you can be sure of a personal service. The only limits we know are that of imagination – which is limitless.
For more info please visit www.wallsdirectory.com, Web Directory

Socialising the anti-social, bringing together the graffiti culture and forming an online community.

Can the anonymity of identity online bring together a culture that largely keeps itself hidden from society? And in doing so free its individuals up to explore and discuss their creative ideas as a community?

Graffiti culture is known by many to be something that is anti-social in nature and almost never seen to be practiced openly. The modern culture that we witness today was derived from the Hip-hop culture and has many negative political and rebellious social overtones to the messages that people write. But could it be that we just misunderstand what is essentially another form of creative expression by individuals that are merely displaying their form of art?

With the rise of digital social network and online communities there is now more than ever, more people coming together in groups that share similar interests and opinions. And with them doing so, opening themselves up to people, who are not from that area of interest but are curious to learn more about it. The reason that we don’t actively see graffiti art being practiced is that you can be arrested for vandalism or destruction of property if caught and that graffiti “crews” like to compete with each other in battles to see who can produce the most impressive creations. The individuals or groups of people that write graffiti have always operated under secrecy in order to protect their identities from persecution, but the anonymity of the internet gives opportunities to bring their artwork across to the world and gain recognition of their ideas.

The online graffiti community can come together quite easily through the sharing of common interests. For instance a user can post their latest creation from their black book and get feedback from others regarding the style or subject matter. This is something that wouldn’t normally happen on the streets giving rise to stagnating of styles of what is really a genuine form of personal illustrative art. So given this method of online idea exchange the creativity of this art form can be expanded and developed maybe to a point that it could start to be used in commercial advertising or art trade (such as Banksy!) and collection. Graffiti as a whole is found outside on just about everything that can be painted and even if online graffiti should become popular it will always be found marking our environments so I’m not saying that this is a cure of this kind of vandalism, merely describing a less harmful outlet. People have been using this form of expression since pre-history and it is unlikely to change overnight or be replaced entirely. The forums that can be found that deal just with the graffiti culture are a good start to get people more interactive through the sharing of ideas and opinions, they are also good for new people interested in the genre. The discussions are none too different than what you would expect when speaking to a photographer or illustrator about their work.

For more info please visit www.wallsdirectory.com, Web Directory

WALLS Online Web Directory has built an extension.

The WALLS online web directory builds an extension to accommodate the needs of different industries and to give customers more choice and a better service.

The WALLS online web directory has extended its service genres to take into account differences in certain industries.
The web directory now has 8 main areas which users can include websites from anything like accounting to building contractors, and find they are with businesses of similar genre.
The first of the 2 new WALLS is called Builders Lane and is open to businesses from the industry, construction, logistics, materials handling, fabrication, trade services and other similar areas. We used to have these kinds of sites with the financial and public service type businesses but thought they would be happier splitting the two. The WALL itself has a bold Granite stone look with galvanised metallic posts that you can also place posters on, we are sure you would enjoy having your industrial or construction based business displayed here.
The second WALL addition called TAG Heaven is that of a graffiti only area. This is mainly for the use of graffiti artists or users but is also open for companies wishing to showcase themselves with graffiti art instead of poster banner artwork. Although this is quite a creative option we would like to extend this choice to our users. The style of this WALL is “low quality standard brick” and is photographic in nature with residual graffiti – the first time we have used this method. The posts are a mixture of telephone pole, concrete light and corroded posts. There is the option to include your website or business for free although many of the benefits of a paid inclusion are not included, a paid directory inclusion on the WALLS is not unreasonable and is well worth the investment. WALLS directory is quite a new web directory – less than 3 months old, yet we are continuing to improve our online standings so that we can better be of service to you and with our minimum 6 month inclusion and the ability to renew, you will be able to take advantage of our growth. The WALLS online web directory is quite unique in comparison to other sites of its kind but by no means less powerful or useful.

For more info please visit www.wallsdirectory.com, Online Web Directory

WALLS Directory building well

Walls Directory is continuing to improve it's online visibility! Big changes in its Alexa rank and search placement. I'm about to release some major site expansions and i will be turning my attention to the "Web Directory" market.

www.wallsdirectory.com Web Directory